Never That Easy
by Sebe
Summary: Someone had pushed her baby off a slide at the playground. And they were going to pay. Scary-angry Claudia Stilinski and her long-suffering husband. Some Talia Hale too.


Author's Note: Small bit about Caludia Stillinski being the protective, awesome mom she was (with the slightly obscured past), and her long-suffering husband. Sheriff wasn't a Sheriff yet. Claudia knew the Hales.

Summary: Someone had pushed her baby off a slide at the playground. And they were going to pay. Scary-angry Claudia Stilinski and her long-suffering husband.

**Never That Easy**

The deputy happily loaded the dishwasher, proud he'd managed to handle the mild incident at Stiles' school on his own and relay it all to his wife without much incident.

Stiles was upstairs playing, likely having already forgotten about being pushed off a tall slide by an impatient classmate, and Claudia's fears of him being hurt were put to rest after she'd swooped him up in her arms and checked that, yes, just skinned knees and a bruise. All was quiet in John's life and house.

John stopped what he was doing, perfectly still and listening carefully.

All was quiet in the Stillinski house.

Oh, hell.

John groaned and shut the door to the dishwasher, straightening up and peering out around the corner carefully.

His house was never quiet. Always happy. Never quiet. It was impossible with a preschooler, let alone one with ADHD and Claudia's genetics. Add in Claudia herself and, well...John still wasn't completely convinced his wife didn't live a past life as a cartoon Tasmanian devil. A cloud of chaos and disorder followed doggedly in the wake of that woman he loved so dearly. Like mother, like son.

"Hon?" He called out hopefully, ever cautious and maybe a little afraid. No matter how calmly she'd seemed to take the news of the schoolyard incident, it had clearly been a ruse. He was now dealing with the righteous fury of a protective mother and everyone in her way would be fair game. Maybe even him.

"Claudia?" He called again, creeping slowly, nervous until he could lay eyes on her. He'd thought volunteering to take the dishes, and thus keep most sharp implements away from her, had been enough of a clever intervention. As he finally found her rummaging through the hall closet only to emerge with a bathroom can sized trash bag and duct tape, he knew he'd clearly been wrong. He swallowed reflexively and smiled. "Whatcha doing, love?"

She turned and gave him an incredulous look.

"What does it look like?" She asked as she closed the door and held up the small black bag and tape. "I'm going to go kill a toddler."

She started to walk past him and he caught her arm.

"Honey, honey," she halted, looking up at him far too calmly to match the wild look in her eyes. "It was just a playground scrape. He's okay."

"That brat pushed my baby off a huge steel slide-"

"He didn't mean to."

"Steel. Slide. Tall. Pushed." She repeated the different order of words slowly, like that would make her husband see clearly. "Into sand. Rough sand. Tiny little particles of glass! He was bleeding!"

"Just scraped knees." John tried, stroking her arms in an attempt at calming her. "The other boy felt terrible. He said he didn't mean to and kept apologizing. He said he'd give Stiles his jello at lunch for the next year." John smiled, feeling his words cause the muscles in Claudia's arms to loosen as he conveyed her intended target's remorse. "Really, honey. He cried longer than Stiles-"

Wrong.

She jerked away from him and resumed marching toward the door. John cursed and caught her again.

"Claudia, you can't maim a kid." She opened her mouth, but he cut her off. "Even if you only stuff him in a bag and scare him." Because of course his wife wouldn't actually _murder_ a child...well, probably. Not under these circumstances anyway, but... John shook his head. "No."

He held her gaze levelly and, after awhile, the hard edge in Claudia's eyes slowly softened. When she sniffed, John put his hand to her face and stroked her cheek.

"My baby got hurt..."

"He's okay."

"I don't like it."

"I know. I don't either." She turned into his hand. "But I handled it. It's okay."

She regards him a minute before taking a deep breath.

"You handled it." She agrees softly. "Ya did good."

"Thanks." He tells her just as softly because he had been worried. This was the first time anything like this had happened and there was just no manual on the matter. She reassured him like she always did, steadied him, with love and improper English. He smiled at her. "And that is why someone else will be teaching Stiles grammar."

She barked out a laugh and swatted at him playfully.

"The boy gets to live?"

"He lives." She promised. "For now."

He grinned along at the really-not-a-joke.

"Can I have the tape, then?" She hesitated before sighing and placing the silver roll in his outstretched hand. He kissed her forehead. "Thank you. Love you. You want to read him a story before bed?"

"Mm. You get him a bath and handle that tonight. Bond. I'll cool down and come kiss him goodnight in a bit." He gave her a look, but she smiled. "Go." He did.

Claudia waited until she heard her husband speaking to their son before she picked up the phone and dialed. There was an answer on the second ring like always.

"Stiles got pushed off a slide at school today."

"Cora and Derek are already in for the night and Laura's out. I can be there in 15."

Claudia smirked at Talia. This is what best friends were for.

"Great. Let's go give this kid a little childhood trauma." She leaned against the desk and fumbled for a flashlight. The glare would make the sharp white of Talia's fangs stand out even sharper. It would all be just a bad dream the next day, but one that would subconsciously ensure her baby wouldn't be pushed out of or into anything for a good long while. "Bring tape."

"Got it." She could hear Talia shrugging on her black leather jacket to further enhance the badass nightmare image. "So where's our target?"

"Just down the road a bit. See you soon."

Claudia hung up and looked down the hallway. She stopped and smiled for a moment as she heard her son splashing about happily, her husband laughing. She may miss being around her pack constantly, but she loved her family dearly. She would protect them every bit as fiercely as she did the Hales. Claudia considered briefly if years of fighting for peace and safety with her pack had made her overreact to this perceived threat to Stiles.

She remembered scabbed over little knees and quickly decided against that. She was being perfectly reasonable. It wasn't like they were going to hurt this kid or anything, just a bit of a scare. No biggie. Really, she was showing a lot of restraint.

Claudia grabbed her purse and grinned wide and sharp, just like her wolves. Peace and quiet were nice and she appreciated them, had fought hard for them, but it was going to be nice to be on the prowl with her alpha again. Nobody messed with her little boy.

She did not envy the night this McCall kid was about to have.


End file.
